Playwriting Contest

[vlermond]

The Irish Theatre Project "From Near and Far" contest
runs January-September, 2006. We're looking for 10-15
minute comedies that speak to the Irish spirit. Small
readers fee. A minimum of three $100 prizes. For complete
submission guidelines, got to: http://www.daughtersoferin.com (http://www.daughtersoferin.com/)
scroll down and click on The Irish Theatre Project button.

[Sakamonda]

Charging a $10 fee for a TEN-MINUTE PLAY??? A DOLLAR A MINUTE??? That's absurd and ridiculous. No serious playwright will submit, because no serious playwright will pay that kind of fee for a ten-minute play contest. I strongly suggest you drop the fee if you want quality submissions (or at least reduce it significantly!) Your fee structure does not follow the guidelines of the Dramatists Guild of America for contests, either. (i.e., the monetary prize must be at least 100 times the amount of the fee; in this case, you would have to be offering a $1000 prize to meet their guidelines).

Looks like a moneymaking scam to me.

[vlermond]

Sorry you feel that way. We are not out to make money. If you read the submission guidelines, you would see that all the funds - with the exception of a $50 honorarium for the readers - is being allocated to the prize pool. And since we are also targeting this contest to Irish writers and other submissions from the British Isles, yes - the differential in US dollar to their pound would be approximately $5.

Best of luck in your future endeavors.

[Sakamonda]

Offering a $50 honorarium to the readers of a contest is highly irregular. Most contests of this type, the readers are volunteers. Again, seems like a scam.

[Maryn]

One of the former members of my critique group owns a theatre, and their contest judges are all volunteers. I won a one-act contest a few years ago at a different, larger theatre, where again, all the judges were volunteers.

I agree that the prize money seems paltry and the entry fee ridiculously high for what's being submitted for judgment. Perhaps it will work for the theatre in question, but it most certainly wouldn't work where I live, where most play contests have either no entry fee at all or a substantial prize.

If your response is poor, vlermond, the problem is likely the money end.

Maryn, whose real name is so Irish most people can't pronounce it

[LindaAliceDewey]

Hi Vlermond,

Not for your contest, but this might be of interest . I'm finishing adapting a full-length musical an Irish ghost that I actually helped cross over. The workshop version did very well last season. Based on my self-published book that's been picked up this year to be re-released by Hampton Roads Publishing. Know a theater over there that might be interested?

Linda